Attabad Lake: Boat services suspended for passengers’ safety

A vessel carrying 40 people was stranded in the middle of the frozen lake a day earlier.

GILGIT:

Boat services through the rather frozen Attabad Lake have been temporarily suspended after a passenger boat got stuck a day earlier, stranding panicked commuters. This was the only means of transportation for people living on both sides of the lake.

Hunza-Nagar Assistant Commissioner Asim Raza said on Monday that the decision had been taken to ensure the safety of passengers, however, the service will be restored after a period of three days.

On Sunday, a boat carrying 40 people was immobilised in the middle of the lake as large ice formations obstructed the route. Fortunately, the passengers were rescued with the help of another vessel operated by Chinese engineers working on the Karakoram Highway.

Raza termed the incident unfortunate as it jeopardised the lives of people. He, however, added the government managed to rescue them with the help of the foreign engineers working in Gilgit-Baltistan.

The suspension of boat services has left the people of Shishkart and Ainabad villages with no option but to walk across the frozen lake to see each other or travel to Hunza.

In the past few weeks, freezing temperatures in G-B have resulted in Attabad Lake freezing over, forcing the boat service to be suspended.

The 23 kilometre-long lake was formed in January 2010 after a massive landslide blocked Hunza River at Attabad. At least three villages and a 25-kilometre portion of the Karakoram Highway were submerged, displacing nearly 25,000 people in Gojal because of the formation of the water body.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 21^st, 2014.